"Apple polishing" describes the act of trying to win someone's approval and to gain favor through excessive or insincere praise and flattery.
The phrase is believed to come from the practice of schoolchildren giving teachers apples as gifts to gain favor or good grades. This practice evolved into the modern idiom.
Other terms that describe this behavior include "currying favor," "brown-nosing," "sucking up," and "toadying".
- From Google with editing
---------------------------------------------------
I used the idiom in comments here before, but what triggered me to present it as APAD today was a recent commenting post in 笑壇 by 爸爸的草鞋.
It was a true story about an office manager who tried to please the big boss by assigning a VIP toilet booth for the boss' use only. But it backfired and created a rumor mill among the company workers, so much so that the boss ended avoiding the bathroom.
The poor and silly office manager, an apple polisher who failed miserably.
You can click the link below to see the story (had her permission, of course):
• 整改 （番外篇）真事兒 -爸爸的草鞋- 
(669 bytes) (207 reads) 06/30/2025 postreply 08:30:12
(To me, not only is the story hilarious, the writing of 草鞋美眉 in traditional Chinese style is well done, honestly 
)
We all may have seen similar stories at work and in life, even in the virtual world sometimes. 
Sweet talk and laying it on with a trowel to gain favor and get ahead? Maybe, for a short while.
But remember: you reap what you sow!
